A good language learner is:

1. confident in his / her ability to learn;
2. self-reliant;
3. motivated and enthusiastic;
4. aware of why he/she wants to learn;
5. unafraid of making mistakes, and unafraid of what he / she doesn’t know;
6. a good risk-taker;
7. a good guesser ??????????????????????????????????????????????;
8. probably positive in his/her attitude to a foreign language and culture;
9. a good pattern perceiver ###@@@###@@@###@@@###@@@;
10. prepared to look for opportunities to come into contact with the language; and
11. willing to assume a certain responsibility for his / her own learning.

Here are some things you can do to improve:

1. If you have cable TV, you can watch CNN International in order to listen for comprehension and different styles of pronunciation. The anchor people and most reporters are from many different English-speaking countries.
2. You could listen to radio stations that broadcast in English.
3. You could make an effort at expanding your vocabulary by trying to learn new words as often as possible and keeping them in a journal.
4. You could enroll in a class at a language school on the weekend; either studying in a group or one to one.
5. You could read English language publications such as the Bangkok Post or The Nation, etc.
6. See movies as often as possible.
7. You could get a boyfriend or girlfriend who is a native speaker.

About writing:

In order to become a better writer you have to read a lot of well-written English publications and practice writing a lot as well.

Posted by Mark on October 17, 2006 at 10:27 pm Bangkok time

How important is English to you?

You should ask yourself this question: “How important is English to me in my life now, and how important will it be for me in the future?”

Thailand has its own culture and language; therefore, you do not really need English to live a good life. But if you think you do, then you should make every possible attempt to keep improving your English in every aspect: reading, writing, speaking and listening. You should learn more idioms, slang and vocabulary words.

Do you know that the English language has the largest vocabulary of any language in the world? There are approximately 600,000 words (100,000 created for new technology) and most people use only about 5,000 words throughout their lives. William Shakespeare's vocabulary was around 20,000 or so. There will always be more new words for you to learn.

What do you want to do with your life? Study abroad? Get a better job? Work for an international company? Be a better communicator? Marry or date a foreigner? Or just socialize with foreigners? You have to decide how important English is for you and then just go ahead and learn it as best you can. It’s all up to you, and you know that: ชีวิตต้องสู้ใช่ไหมครับ

Posted by Mark on October 5, 2006 at 4:44 pm Bangkok time